Offices Held

Equerry to the King 1781-97; groom of bedchamber 1800-12, (Windsor) 1812-20.

Biography

Greville, Fanny Burney’s favourite, ‘Colonel Wellbred’, resumed his parliamentary career in 1796, when he was returned unopposed for Windsor on the court interest. At the contested election of 1802 he was second in the poll and he survived the subsequent petition. As during his previous period in the House, he showed no inclination to make a political mark. He supported Pitt, voting for the assessed taxes augmentation bill, 4 Jan. 1798, and apparently transferred his support to Addington, the vote of thanks for whose services as Speaker he seconded, 16 Feb. 1801. Classed in the government list of September 1804 as a supporter of Pitt, he voted against Whitbread’s motion of censure on Melville, 8 Apr. 1805, and was again reckoned a supporter of Pitt in the government list of 25 July. There is no evidence of his having opposed the ‘Talents’, although he did not vote on the repeal of the Additional Force Act, 30 Apr. 1806. He did not seek re-election in 1806.

Greville’s major preoccupation continued to be with his services in the royal household which, he later claimed, were ‘extended beyond the mere duties of a court attendance’.2 He appears to have been genuinely attached to the King, whose confidence he enjoyed and on whose behalf he conducted an extensive correspondence on the management and improvement of the royal estates and parks.

Greville, who retained his position as groom of the bedchamber on the Windsor establishment after 1812, died 27 Apr. 1824.